[Captain Jack Sparrow draws his sword as he does and flicks his hair back a forth]

Firstly, I would like to thank you for accepting this debate.

Many Americans seem to believe that the United States of America is the greatest nation in the world. Nevertheless, it appears apparent to many Europeans and other people in the developed world that the USA's magnificence is a lie. Some Americans think that they live in the greatest country in the world because they are told that they do.

"Great" is described as "wonderful; first-rate; very good." On the assumption that my opponent in this debate is a patriot, I should mention that although "Patriotism" is defined as "devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty", it seems to me to be both illogical and irrational. This is because patriotism is when someone assumes their country to be better than all others simply because they were born in it. Seeing as many Americans call themselves "patriots", could it be possible that they are basing their country's greatness on the fact that it is where they live?

Many laws and political policies in the United States, such as the Second Amendment and the lack of good healthcare, is looked down upon by other developed countries. I will stick with one of these examples: the Second Amendment allows almost any American citizen to carry a gun and kill whomever they please. The USA has the highest murder rate in the developed world. People accuse video games and violent movies rather than guns because it inspires hatred. In Japan people play these video games and watch the same films (the same goes for the UK, France, Canada, Germany etc.) but the murder rate there is less than 10% of what it is in the USA. I could go on to talk about why firearms should be banned.

I was recently talking to an American patriot who claimed that he lived in the greatest country in the world because of its "freedom." After searching about America's "freedom", I found that there are 46 countries with better freedom of the press than the USA, there are 9 countries with greater economic freedom, there are 21 countries better than the USA in freedom from corruption etc. The idea of Civil Rights is fairly new in the United States. New Zealand citizens have the greatest freedom in the world.

I would go on with reasons why the USA is not the greatest country in the world but I might bring up my new arguments in later rounds.